Month: November 2019

OURWAY Visits Waterford Greenway

2 DAY GREENWAY DEVELOPMENT WORKSHOP AND LEARNING JOURNEY

It was a dull and dreary day in Dungarvan, Co. Waterford but this did not impact on participation numbers for the 10km & 20km taster cycles along the stunning Waterford Greenway on day one of Fáilte Ireland’s Greenway development workshop and learning journey. Fáilte Ireland along with the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport brought staff from 21 local authorities together to inform and educate them on how to maximise the tourism potential and economic impact of Greenways in their regions. The two-day workshop event involved firstly a site visit along the Greenway and secondly, various speakers presenting best practices over the two days to participants from 21 Councils across Ireland who are currently involved in or will be involved in future Greenway developments in their respective areas.

The Councils that attended have applied for funding through the Government’s €53million Greenways Development Strategy, which falls under Project Ireland 2040.

The number of tourists coming to Ireland on walking and cycling holidays has grown exponentially in recent years, from 371,000 in 2012 to 1.8million in 2017. Last year, 46% of all overseas holidaymakers to Ireland engaged in walking and cycling as part of their holiday experience.

As a partner in the OURWAY Project, Patrick Devine Projects Officer at NWRA & Maeve Doyle (NWRA) attended the extremely insightful workshop on best practices for developing and maintaining greenways. Speakers at the event included:

Fiona Monaghan – Fáilte Ireland

Stephen Lynch – Coach House Coffee

Michael Kelly – Westmeath CoCo

Doug Corrie – Sport Ireland

Jill de Azevedo – Fáilte Ireland

Eamonn Hore – Wexford CoCo

Jonny Brunnock – Waterford CoCo

Sarah Fitzpatrick – Fáilte Ireland

Over the duration of the workshop, we learned about the success stories of the Coach House Coffee expanding their business due to the vast increase in visitor numbers to Waterford and the Waterford Greenway. We heard from technical speakers regarding the initial development of Greenways – recommended surfaces, widths, services, and we also heard about the recreational aspect of Greenway Development and the importance of creating a cultural journey in collaboration with local historians/heritage officers. Jill De Azevedo (Fáilte Ireland) emphasized the importance of surprising and delighting the user at every opportunity.

Eamon Hore spoke on the redevelopment of the town of New Ross in tandem with developing a Greenway that has been a great success amongst both locals and visitors to the town. This was a Masterclass in sourcing and availing of any and all funding possible to drive the project to where it needed to be.

There was a lot of food for thought which we are looking forward to sharing with our European partners at the next OURWAY partner meeting.

EU Studies Programme – EU In My Region

This week in Galway Technology Centre (GTC), 21 leading professional from various sectors across the Northern & Western Region of Ireland commenced their EU Studies Programme.

This programme designed by the Northern & Western Regional Assembly and delivered in conjunction with GTC and The Irish College, Leuven, is geared to upskilling senior staff members across the region in the European Union Structures and Funding possibilities.

The course was delivered by Mr. David Grant, CEO of the Irish College, Leuven, who is widely acknowledged as a leading expert in the field of the European Union and Funding Streams.

Following the initial lectures, the participants will travel to Brussels, the epicentre of European Union institutions, to continue their exposure to the EU funding possibilities for the region.

In Brussels. the group will receive further tuition from Mr. Paul Webber, EU Funding Specialist, and also get the opportunity to visit some of the key EU Institution, such as The Commission, The Parliament and The Committee of the Regions.

According to Mr. Brendan Mooney, EU Programmes Executive, “This course is to help facilitate our regional stakeholders maximise all EU Funding possibilities; in a post Brexit environment, EU funding and our connection to the other member states will be more important than ever and we must ensure our peripherality as a region can be seen as a positive to partnerships across the Union”

The course will finish in January 2020, but the benefits of this collaborating will be seen long into the future of the Region.

DEVISE Project Staff Exchange – West Flanders

As part of the DEVISE project, stakeholders from Ireland (Enterprise Ireland, NUIG and Donegal County Council) attended a two-day knowledge exchange visit in West Flanders to learn about public sector supports and Universities which support the growth of ICT companies and SMEs with their digital transformation.

The staff exchange was organised by project partner Voka – Chamber of Commerce West Flanders in Belgium, on the 5th and 6th of November 2019. Partners and stakeholders from Spain, France, Ireland, Northern Ireland and Finland got the opportunity to visit Howest University of Applied Sciences. The Howest University Industrial Design Centre have specialist equipment and dedicated workspaces to help students turn ideas into real and viable products and prototypes. The University also allow businesses to use their facilities to design and develop products for a monthly fee. Partners also learned about ‘MyMachine Methodology’, a process based on co-creation, collaboration between children and students of all educational levels who work together as equals to realize “dream machines” during one academic year.

The second visit took DEVISE project partners and stakeholders to Barco’s premises, including their co-working space. Barco is a Belgian technology company that specializes in digital projection and imaging technology and have over 3,600 employees worldwide with headquarters in Kortrijk (Belgium). Barco aims to “use technology to transform the quality of life: from improving health outcomes to changing the way people work and creating compelling experiences”.

During the second day of the staff exchange, attendees visited Hangar-K, a space for companies to work together and co-create design-based products. Hangar-K is “a co-creation hub where starters, growers and established companies are brought together under one roof with a clear mission: to strengthen entrepreneurship”. Hanger-K is a disused railway station that has been turned into a modern co-working space and start-up incubator with funding Barco, the City of Kortrijk and Howest University.

Finally, participants got an insight into the IMEC.ICON programme, which is led by West Flanders and aims to transfer research and innovation to the industry. This research programme provides access to the knowledge of 4000 researchers under the following domains: smart cities, smart mobility, smart industries, smart infotainment, smart health, smart energy and smart education. It offers interdisciplinary cooperative research tailored to the needs of the industry and a route for valorization in viable services and products. The stakeholders and partners in the DEVISE project will use the knowledge gained from this staff exchange to develop actions for the final Action Plan which will improve policies in the region.

The Northern and Western Regional Assembly along with ERNACT in Donegal are project partners in the DEVISE project which runs from 2018-2022 . Learn more about the DEVISE project at www.interregeurope.eu/devise.

HUGE PROJECT – Ireland Info-Gathering Workshop

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OURWAY Visits Waterford Greenway

EU Studies Programme – EU In My Region

DEVISE Project Staff Exchange – West Flanders

HUGE PROJECT – Ireland Info-Gathering Workshop

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